Russian poultry industry growth stagnates

Domestic poultry production that had been steadily raising over the past 12 years in Russia has now entered the stagnation period, according to a report from the Russian State Statistic Service.

The number of birds at all poultry farms of the country decreased from 394.74 million in the end of 2012 to 394.41 million heads in the end of 2013.

The data of January is not calculated yet, but the downward trend continued, according to the president of analytical agency Agrifood Strategies Albert Davleev. President of the Russian Grain Union Arkady Zlochevskiy says that the decrease of poultry stock since the beginning of last year amounts to 3%.

In addition, according to the data reported by the Russian Poultry Union, during all months of last year, with the exception of January, April and May, the number of egg produced also has been decreasing. As a result in 2013, 41.3 billion eggs were produced, 1.8 % or 800 million pieces less than the year before.

The main reason for this reduction in poultry stock is the sharp decline in the profitability of production both of eggs and poultry meat, says Davleev. The only one public poultry producer – Cherkizovo reported for the first nine months of 2013 that the gross profit of its poultry business decreased by 40 %, while gross margin decreased from 28 to 17% – “mainly because of the high cost of grain.”